Saturday, August 06, 2016

The end of the mostly-fake-but-still-compelling fiction that participants were "amateurs" who competed out of mere love of the game.

A fuller understanding of just how much cheating went on among the athletes. First, it was the massive revelations about juicing by Iron Curtain teams but post-Cold War, it became clear that many Western athletes (Ben Johnson! FloJo! Marion Jones!) who won our hearts were faking it too (except for Carl Lewis, the greatest track and field Olympian yet one who was never fully embraced by the crowds, either).

The mainstreaming of sports TV and the ability of less-popular sports to gain an audience independent of the Olympics.

The disturbing spectacle of the Games being hosted by tyrannical and/or bankrupt countries and cities that wasted huge amounts of money on conspicuous consumption (Beijing, Moscow and Sochi, and Athens obviously, but let's never forget Montreal too!).

An endless stream of scandals implicating national-level Olympic Committees but also the IOC itself in just terrible, terrible behavior.

The growth in cosmopolitanism around the globe, meaning that we are no longer as mesmerized by "exotic" athletes from foreign countries.

Brazil's political instability, Zika problems, and inability to control sewage.

The long, acrid hangover from the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, during which the Palestinian terrorist group Black September killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. In the wake of the murders, the head of the IOC, American Avery Brundage, famously declared that "the Games must go on," despite "two savage attacks." For Brundage, a lifelong racist and personal friend of Adolf Hitler (as head of the USOC during the '36 Games in Berlin, Brundage watch track and field competitions from der Fuhrer's box and pressured the American track coach to sideline Jewish runners), the second "attack" during the '72 Games was a threatened boycott of the Olympics by African nations if apartheid Rhodesia was allowed to compete. Beyond all that, endless boycotts for this or that reason, usually tied to politics, not athletics.

The Olympics, designed as a means by which France might avenge its loss in the Franco-Prussian War, is explicitly nationalistic in a world that is moving toward greater individualism.

"The Olympics matter less because we live in a better world, one filled with innumerable options for leisure and one mostly—though by no means completely—free from the most onerous aspects of geopolitical strife. We live in a world where nations matter less than individuals, a reality that is mirrored by the increasing number of 'nation-hopping' Olympians." And the rise of an actual "refugee team."

The IOC's insane attempt to control and regiment all aspects of the Games on the Internet, including a prohibition on GIFS, Vines, and other home-brewed content. Apart from all the scandals, the IOC is the athletic equivalent of Metallica, busting the balls of its most-fervent fans in the hope of squeezing a few more nickels out of a dying franchise.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't watch it for one simple reason. It's no longer the Olympics of "a miracle on ice", it is a politically correct SJW fest with coverage that devotes more time to sob stories than it does to sports. I mostly thought it was funny to see that Reason is still stuck on the outdated idea that the world is "moving toward greater invididualism" and away from nationalism.

On the plus side, the Olympic torch carrier sprinting to get away from gunshots in a nearby favela has already provided more entertainment than any three recent Olympics.

I watched the opening ceremony briefly, and it had globalist global warming bullshit propaganda, it was hilarious, graphics of how Amsterdam was flooding. (Netherlands was built 26% below sea level from the get go)

Hmmmmm.....let's see.....Zika, literally swimming with feces, SJW propaganda.....nah, reckon not. However, I'll say this....I had to smile st the thought of that Diplomat killing that thug with his own gun. Think of all those young men and women.....in the midst of that Zika stew.

1. Global warming: check2. All the tennis players have played each other in million dollar tournaments only weeks ago. Who cares who wins this time around. They'll all be playing each other in a few more weeks. Quite a few of the listed sports fit this category. Tournaments just about monthly.3. X-Y chromosomes in how many women players4. many wide angle lenses aren't wide enough to capture the entire egos of the players.5. the original marathon was run twice by someone who collapsed and died after the finish line, so the story goes. This modern version lacks the warrior impetus.

6. but, "the Games must go on," despite "two savage attacks." I kind of agree with this. The terrorists will win if we don't party party party. So while Boko Haram have reportedly killed upwards of 20,000 people lets pretend that everything is normal. Who wants the Eiffel Tower in Kenyan colors? This point 6 is a double entendre. Sid James, the deceased comedian does this sketch in "Up the Khyber" where the dinner/tea party must go on while the place is under brutal attack.

Games we take absolutely for granted: tennis, soccer, badminton, were invented for recreation. It was all way down the survival list. Edwardian Englishmen could afford to. Strangely, we can't afford not to.

We should miss Wheeler. Repetitive bores are important. Think about it. The predictable bore is a voting block.

Funny, I had been thinking about what a complete Narrative buster the Olympics are.

Why would there be Men's events and Women's events when gender is a social construct. There should only be one set of events and women would naturally win 50% of the time because muh vagina.

Excellence is rewarded? What kind of triggering device did they bring to the table? Gold medals? How about a participation trophy instead, everyone gets one. And why is everyone so young, have they become an ageist organization? Why not combine the regular Olympics with the Special Olympics, that would be entertaining as hell.

If it weren't for the huge amounts of graft and money to be made off of the IOC they would have killed the Olympics a long time ago- everything it stands for is the opposite of the official story of our time.

I first watched The Olympics in 1960: Rome. The result of the 100 metres was Gold: Armin Hary (Germany) Silver: Dave Sime (U.S.A) Bronze: Peter Radford (England). I like an All-White, all Anglo & Saxon medal table.

When I am told that our distance runner is a Somalian who lives in America and has barely ever been to England I switch off or would had I a television set - though it has to be said that is equally how I felt about The Olympics when rather than a Muslim Somali we were stealing a white South Africans (who also lives in America) - I refer to Zola Budd.

The Olympics are an anachronism and need to be put out of their misery.

Why would there be Men's events and Women's events when gender is a social construct.

hehe. I'll have to ask the diversity ombudsmen at work about this one.

"Shouldn't everyone be either hermaphriditic or neuter to be properly diverse / non-offensive?" Of course, if the office of diverse diversity were really on the ball, they'd require everyone to be both.

"On the plus side, the Olympic torch carrier sprinting to get away from gunshots in a nearby favela has already provided more entertainment than any three recent Olympics." Usually a lurker but that was cruelty artist gold. Not to mention the torch having to be esorted by a scrum of the Brazilian analog of marines.

01) No more Commie vs. Free World02) No more rooting against drugged up, professionals from USSR and East Germany.03) USA team has become too "diverse".04) Bob Costas and NBC TV05) SJW/Liberal propaganda06) Too many sports - Tennis anyone?07) Track and Field has become boring. The same stars compete constantly.

Interesting, I thought that the massive increase in the number of events would be number 1. I know that for me, when synchronized swimming is an event, it destroys the legitimacy of the rest of the events. I know the Olympic committee is trying the old "something for everyone" mantra, but still, just go back to the original events...

8. Blogger Aeoli Pera August 06, 2016 6:47 AM The long, acrid hangover from the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, during which the Palestinian terrorist group Black September killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches.

Nobody under the age of 60 even remembers that happened.

I remember Jim McKay saying "they're all gone" but it seemed to be overly sentimental like they were our long lost friends or something when of course we didn't even know them.

other reason I don't watch the Olympics is Lance Armstrong - I guess his cheating wasn't during the Olympics(?) and was in Tour de France but its all the same to me. liars and cheaters

As for drug restrictions, although a topic of debate in the early 20th century, their implementation was really a product of the American, moralistic War on Drugs and didn't even exist before '65.

If you want to see what sports with unrestricted drug use is like, just watch anything before then. Commentators used to openly talk about the steroids being given to American footballers to aid in injury recovery.

I'm under 40, I know it happened, but I haven't even seen (((Spielberg's))) propaganda piece on it because I have no interest.

Could not roll my eyes hard enough during the AGW shot last night. Maybe if you Brazilian idiots would stop hacking down your back yard for whatever reason, there wouldn't be as much of a threat. Just putting that out there.

Saw a little of the opening ceremonies: ugly, coarse "interpretive dancing", gaudy colour scheme, Brutalist "urban" set design, brainless GW theme (at which point I turned it off, and only watched Canada march into the stadium later on). Fireworks are almost always a winner for me; overhead shot of the perfectly round stadium turning red reminded me of a hemorrhoid cushion.

But here's the question: which was worse, Rio or London? I think London was worse, more naggingly PC and insistent upon rewriting history. England had a lot of great history and culture, it took a really seriously destructive mind to drag it down. Brazil - eh, who knows or cares? Jiggly dancing, that's about all I know about Brazil.

I also love how it is in Brazil the home of the superior future race of mixed origins and exotic features (aka brownness).A multicultural paradise!Probably not a accident with today's nonsense, I am surprised white men are allowed to compete.

Also I just looked at this years USA team of super diverse athletes, I noticed a distinct lack of diversity in all water sports and shooting/archery.Coincidence or just privilege?

I accidentally caught some of the rhythmic gymnasts performing during the last olympics. Some of those chicks were very feminine/good-looking babes. Like dancing girls from a Cecil B. DeMille film. So I might look for that.

https://youtu.be/Cd_9DGf75k0

Now, that is something I could get behind. And in front of. And on top of.

I couldn't believe the Londonistan Olympics was willing to give exclusive rights to making fries to McDonalds when fish and chips/fries is the national dish. Last Olympics there was an awful niggerette gymnast that only made it to the US team via affirmative action.

Global Warming propaganda as the main thrust for the opening ceremony?

If it was not so warm the favelas would be peaceful and the raw sewage in the river wouldn't smell as bad.

, I noticed a distinct lack of diversity in all water sports and shooting/archery.

Because they don't have TVs? This was the subject at a large group dinner last night. Nobody in our party owns a TV. Everybody was at the sports bar waiting to see what would go wrong with Brazil hosting the Olympics.

Back in 1980, after years of practice, a cousin of mine made the Olympic team in flat-water kayaking. Not exactly something you can make a well-paid career at. Jimmah Carter yanked the US out of the games to try to bolster his re-election chances. My cousin went ballistic with rage. Hasn't forgiven Carter to this day. I stopped watching the Olympics then, and haven't since.

Errrr... There is no stereotype for Brazilian looks. Direct European descendents, mixed people, Amerindians, Black, Japanese, Chinese, Slavs; Brazil has it all. Swimming teams mostly come from the Southeast where the majority is white, all our greatest swimmers were white.

Wow apparently watching the Olhmpics in the First worlds sucks... I remember watching some NBC broadcast of some sports and thinking they overhyped the whole thing.

Btw... I am watching it right now, it is pretty good so far, i thought the drug dealers would be shooting at the athelets by now, that means that pur tactical teams got a nice security cordon and the Mayor probably cut a deal with the dealers XD.

A few years ago Seattle made a (thankfully losing) bid to host the Olympics. Geographically, just west of Seattle is the Olympic peninsula and the Olympic mountains. So there area a lot of small businesses in the area named "Olympic" this and that. They got a bunch of threatening letters from the USOC about trademark violations. Hard to support an organization with that sort of attitude. Latter revelations about scandals weren't really a surprise.

I do remember coverage of the games when I was a kid that captured the sense of a sporting festival, all sorts of athletes come together to compete and celebrate their competition. But I haven't felt that for a long time. Sometimes I wonder if I've just gotten jaded as I've gotten older or if the world has changed. Maybe both.

The endless freaking sob stories. Yes, Yes, Yes. I can't stand them. The thought of having to listen to them and all of the SJW multicultural crap while trying to watch the Olympics practically causes me to start twitching (well, not really, but it makes me have no interest in watching any of the Olympics).

In the 1970s, as I recall, the number of personal interest stories was somewhat limited and were actually interesting. Also, they were not necessarily sob stories. I believe the stories were often about European or maybe Soviet athletes as well as American ones.

the ideal Olympics for the powers that be would be a three day ceremony about LBGTQZXCLIMATECHANGEFEMINISM culminating in a world peace prayer led by an Athislamist before 600 gay mud tranny athletes all come out waving the UN flag and all given medals for showing up.

For me at least it was the lack of actually being able to watch the, you know, competition. Every event is 45 minutes of sob story, and the top three competitors +the US athlete if not in the top 3.

And they don't even broadcast the interesting events any more. Pentathlon, the shooting events, fencing, equestrian events, it's hard even to find online.

It's all human interest and not the competition. And I have very little interest in humans.

I do remember the 1972 Munich tragedy.

But no, nobody was calling Avery Brundage an old Nazi in 1972. He wasn't a Nazi. That's for our oh so delicately sensitive modern SJW types. The 1932 Olympics were held in Berlin. Brundage was the head of the organization, or course he was in Hitler's box.What was he supposed to do? Boycott his own event? Refuse to attend the Olympics because it was held in Germany? Talk about self-righteous pricks....

I think the big interest-killer was when they decided to stagger the Olympics so they would be held every two years. That took away the specialness and anticipation and made it seem too common an occurrence. It also made me lose track of which years were Olympic years and which ones weren't.

Hearing that the Olympic Village was basically one huge coked up orgy also made me care less about the athletes. When I thought they were all wide-eyed kids trying to make good for their home countries I could bring myself to be invested in their struggle, but after hearing about the level of debauchery they were sinking to, I realized they had no better morals than NBA Basketball players. I'd rather watch the kids in the local Pee Wee Baseball team play than these spoiled brats.

I think the big interest-killer was when they decided to stagger the Olympics so they would be held every two years. That took away the specialness and anticipation and made it seem too common an occurrence. It also made me lose track of which years were Olympic years and which ones weren't.

Hearing that the Olympic Village was basically one huge coked up orgy also made me care less about the athletes. When I thought they were all wide-eyed kids trying to make good for their home countries I could bring myself to be invested in their struggle, but after hearing about the level of debauchery they were sinking to, I realized they had no better morals than NBA Basketball players. I'd rather watch the kids in the local Pee Wee Baseball team play than these spoiled brats.

Alice De Goon August 06, 2016 4:03 PM I think the big interest-killer was when they decided to stagger the Olympics so they would be held every two years. That took away the specialness and anticipation and made it seem too common an occurrence.

Brundage has been constantly attacked for 70 years because he didn't promote Jewish interests. That lead to people calling him an "Nazi". Defensively, wanking on about how he was really a great friend of the Jews, only invites further attacks.

Why can't people understand that when insincere people attack someone, defending them with facts or 'Gosh, he wasn't a racist/bigot/hompophobe because blah, blah" accomplishes nothing because the attacks aren't motivated by intellectual honesty.

"Hearing that the Olympic Village was basically one huge coked up orgy also made me care less about the athletes. When I thought they were all wide-eyed kids trying to make good for their home countries I could bring myself to be invested in their struggle, but after hearing about the level of debauchery they were sinking to, I realized they had no better morals than NBA Basketball players."

I totally agree with this and also your comment about holding the Olympics every 2 years. Every change that's been made to the Olympics over the past 40 years seems to have made them worse. I can't really think of any change that has made them better.

I enjoy the Olympic competition. It's mainly no named kids that train hard for years in the hopes of representing their country and winning a medal. A lucky few might go on to give commentary for a major Network but most will be forgotten. If we're talking about SJW convergence then MLB, NFL, NBA and any other major sport aren't worth watching anymore.

Absolute worst part of watching the Olympics so far has been all the blatantly leftist commercials, and the "GLOBUL WARMANG" rainforest thing in the opening ceremony. All the talk of "refugees" and "globalism" and everything just induces uncontrollable eye-rolling.

A little before your time, perhaps, but 1980 was arguably as great an impact as Munich 1972. Munich was sold as a tragedy and act of terror; Carter's election year boycott of the 1980 games legitimized politicizing the games, because it was done by one of the major governments. It also crippled the 1984 LA games.

A little before your time, perhaps, but 1980 was arguably as great an impact as Munich 1972. Munich was sold as a tragedy and act of terror; Carter's election year boycott of the 1980 games legitimized politicizing the games, because it was done by one of the major governments. It also crippled the 1984 LA games.